Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals has installed a G (Gravity) Scan – an open standing MRI scanner. This new open standing MRI machine is a revolutionary platform for musculoskeletal applications including the spine, which provides surgeons a unique additional diagnostic element. When lying down, the patient hardly puts weight on the lower limb because of which a conventional MRI scan cannot detect some vital problems and deviations. This technology enables true weight-bearing examination which was not possible before and was one of the greatest challenges to MRI. By allowing scanning in standing position, the technology also helps doctors diagnose functional alignments of patients’ joints—how they are and they progress and whether the condition will get worse. In addition, the machine is open and thus most friendly for patients who have claustrophobia (fear of small closed-in space).
This new machine incorporates latest technological innovations at the international level. One can have various tilting positions such as 45 degrees, 90 degrees etc., on this machine—the standing MRI, which uses the principle of gravity in giving added advantages in diagnosing spinal diseases and musculoskeletal disorders of the patients including joints.
Dr Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group said, ”This open standing MRI Machine would be very critical for patients who continue to experience pain after spine surgery because it can evaluate the role and effect of patients’ weight on the curvature of spine, which cannot be accurately analysed with conventional MRI machines. Such patients can now hope to get proper and accurate spine surgery done as with this scan the surgeons would have an exact idea and better analysis of the extent and nature of injury, visualised along with the effect of gravitational forces.”
Close to one million spine surgeries are performed each year, but the outcomes are not good with a substantial failure rate. This technology would help improve the outcomes of these surgeries by identifying the pain generating pathology. In addition to serving as a diagnostic tool, the technology would further help doctors understand the patient’s recovery process after the procedure including joint surgeries, especially knee joints.
EH News Bureau
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